New North Seattle strip club may open on familiar site

Former Rick's site has use permit from planning and development department

BY CASEY MCNERTHNEY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Updated 8:30 pm, Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The former site Rick's, the former Colacurcio-owned strp club, is being auctioned at 2 p.m. June 29 and may reopen as a strip club. This photo was taken June 3, 2011.

Photo: Casey McNerthney/seattlepi.com

The former site Rick's, the former Colacurcio-owned strp club, is...

The former site Rick's, the former Colacurcio-owned strp club, is being auctioned at 2 p.m. June 29 and may reopen as a strip club. This photo was taken June 3, 2011.

Photo: Casey McNerthney/seattlepi.com

The former site Rick's, the former Colacurcio-owned strp club, is...

The former site Rick's, the former Colacurcio-owned strp club, is being auctioned at 2 p.m. June 29 and may reopen as a strip club. This photo was taken June 3, 2011.

Photo: Casey McNerthney/seattlepi.com

The former site Rick's, the former Colacurcio-owned strp club, is...

The former site Rick's, the former Colacurcio-owned strp club, is being auctioned at 2 p.m. June 29 and may reopen as a strip club. This photo was taken June 3, 2011.

Photo: Casey McNerthney/seattlepi.com

The former site Rick's, the former Colacurcio-owned strp club, is...

Rick's Nightclub is shown reflected in a puddle in the parking lot on Wednesday April 28, 2010 on Lake City Way Northeast in Seattle. As part of a plea deal in federal court the notorious strip club closed.

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If a Seattle businessman gets his way, the former home of Rick's strip club may soon reopen with the same name.

Bob Davis, the man who most recently operated Jiggles strip club in the University District and also tried to open a strip club on Aurora Avenue North, has put in an application with the city to operate at the former Rick's site in Lake City.

But Davis, or another man who has filed a separate application to open a strip club there, must first get control of the property, which is being auctioned at 2 p.m. June 29. Davis expects there will be several people bidding on the property later this month – and he expects the city to fight his attempt to open a strip club.

"I feel like they've got a vendetta, but I can't prove anything," he said. "They fought me every millimeter of the way."

Davis filed his application through ASF Inc., of which he is the governing person. His application listed the new name as Chantal's Gentlemen's Club, though he said Tuesday that might change. Davis said he wants to use the longtime name of the Lake City strip club if he gets it, though he’s not sure if he’ll have rights to the name.

Rick's was seized as part of the racketeering prosecution of Frank Colacurcio Sr., his son Frank Jr. and their associates. The elder Colacurcio died last year, and his son pleaded guilty, agreeing to forfeit more than $1 million and his interest in four strip clubs and the group's nearby Talents West office, which is also being auctioned.

Davis applied for an adult entertainment license and business license for the former site last year, before Jiggles was opened at 5220 Roosevelt Way N.E. From 1985 to 2010, the site operated as Giggles comedy club.

On Jan. 27, the City Attorney's Office asked King County Superior Court to close Jiggles. City officials said it violated a zoning buffer that requires strip clubs to be no closer than 800 feet of a school, child-care center, community center or public park.

King County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Barnett ruled in March that the city was within its rights to close Jiggles.

In addition to Davis, another corporation, NNY Group LLC, has applied to operate the Rick's space. An Issaquah man, Chad Lisk, is the governing person for the corporation, which filed in March.

That corporation hasn't proposed a new name for the Rick's site, said Katherine Schubert-Knapp of the city's Finance and Administrative Services Department.

No use permits are required from the Department of Planning and Development to make Rick's a strip club because the previous use permit doesn't expire, department spokesman Bryan Stevens said.

It's possible the new owner might need a construction permit of some sort, he said, but that wouldn't require a neighborhood review, just that the new owner meet technical codes.

Davis filed his application through ASF Inc., of which he is the governing person.

The attorney listed as the LLC agent for Lisk did not return a call for comment Tuesday.

The Rick's site that Davis applied to operate in Lake City is roughly a half mile from the site of another strip club that is expected to open soon, Pandora's Adult Cabaret.

In late April, an adult cabaret construction permit was issued by the city for the site of the Seven Seas restaurant and bar at 8914 Lake City Way N.E.

The city issued a permit April 25, which listed Jack A. Johnson, of Mill Creek, as the property owner. Johnson, part of J&M Partners LLC, obtained the property in September 2009, records show.

Planning department staff received a construction plan for the Seven Seas building, built in 1966, and the tenant can now change the use of the restaurant and tavern to an adult cabaret before the permit expires on Oct. 25, 2012.

The Seven Seas closed last week, and renovation on the building has begun. Click here to read more about the proposed North Seattle strip club.